For the past 11 years I’ve been supplying my own water to my house, I’ve drilled two wells, I’ve had water delivered. And a few years ago I had water for a few months by a company I believe was named “Fly by Night.”
The first water company was a sight to behold, they ran ¾ inch pipe through 7 purok’s and installed a water meter at my house. For the first week I had running water every day, the second week, I had water every other day. This was caused by too many houses being supplied by not enough water. Add to that the fact they laid the pipes helter-skelter up and down the roads and they leaked at every joint. We finally ended up with water every other week or so, lacking the pressure to get to my two water tanks.
There was a leak in front of my house that when the water was on would flood the road. When I asked about repairing it I was informed that it was my responsibly to do the repair. Since the leak was on their side of the meter, I just gave them a shrug of my shoulders, and said thank you. Six months went by without me receiving any water, yet they did send me a bill. I went back to using my well after the first month and locked the meter and cut the water supply off, and paid no further mind to it.
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I was being charged the minimum of 40 pesos per month, even though they had delivered no water in six months. When I spoke with Ric, my Barangay Kaptain, he said that no one was going to pay, and the company had closed. Six months later they stole my water meter. That just about broke my heart. November 2009, a crew from the Department of Water, City of Dinalupihan appeared on my street in mass digging their little hearts out. What pray tell is going on? New 3 inch water pipes are being laid, underground for that matter, not just lying on the side of the road. Months go by; I smiled and said to myself, “Another plan that’s gone the way of the Ducks, South!”
April 2010 trucks are moving with great speed up and down my street, so I followed them, to see what is going on. They were delivering pumps to a new pumping station, which I didn’t even know was there. The end of April my wife has a new water meter installed, (It could have been my old one that was stolen.) Two days later, high presure clean water is flowing to my water tanks. Wow, Y2K is over, I’m in the new millennium albeit ten years late, but we’re here. I’m going to party like its 1999.
The month of June 2010, not a leak, not a missed day of flowing water, all is good here on the mountain in Barangay Roosevelt, purok 2, Dinalupihan, Bataan. [We must assume they liked FDR here] That being said, I’m not selling the pump to my well. And I will pay the bill every month if they keep the water flowing. Praise be to my local government. I drove in to Dinalupihan the other day to pay my first water bill; P 200.00 was all it was. I have no idea if that’s high or low, but I do know, that by not having to pump my own water my electric bill dropped by P 2,000.00 in May.
Addendum: I found a leak in my old system, while my wife was out searching for our “Plumber Guy” I fixed it. I’m still non union, so don’t turn me in, please. I let him patch the cement.
Excellent rundown, Paul. I see that you apparently already have a water board in operation there … and it even works now. I believe here in Bulacan we recently got the first ‘skeleton” board “stood up” just a few months ago … perhaps in 10 years or so they will actually have a functional water district in place.
Meantime we make do (in our case here) with a deep well, big storage tank, in-street piping and meters from our local home owners association, or (yes, competing pipes in the street) a local commercial outfit connected by business agreements with Manila Water … who would like to take over all the local operations but has a small shortcoming … they ain’t got no water.
They have every other modern convenience in place to make them a great water company, though, so one of these days they will be a force to be reckoned with. In my subdivision, though, water is much like politics only much more passionate. Those homeowners who did switch to the new water company (it’s easy to tell, you can see the cuts in the street for the new pipes) are banned forever from ever getting water from “us original” guys and even drummed out of the homeowner’s association … they still own their homes, but since they use the wrong water supplier, they have lost the right to vote in the community.
Gotta love it, really.
Hi Dave;
When you first brought up “Water Board” my mind flashed to Gitmo and the CIA, but I figured it out. Your HOA seems quite strict, rather harsh to be booted out for switching water. The first “Water Works”, {which didn’t collect as much as “Park Place”) suffered from the same problem as you spoke of, too many customers and not enough water. Now that we have connected to the city system all seems (note the word seems) to be flowing well. I’ll take the wait and see attitude, and hope for the best.
Good article Paul. You mentioned your electrical bill decrease without pumping your own water. I am curious if you don’t mind telling , how much is your average electrical bill per month for your home in the Philippines? The reason I ask is that I have been told that electrical is very expensive in the Philippines.
Mike;
I wish I knew the average monthly bill; mine varies from P 7,000.00 to my all time personal best of P 12,000.00 (I must have gone wild that month). The thing that perplexes me is, once my power was off for 7 full days due to a typhoon, (they divert our power to Mega Manila) the following month my bill was higher than the preceding month. Drink a beer, scratch your head, and avoid heart attacks.
Too funny.. Seems we have some of the same issues on the island of Samal…Glad to hear all is ok for now…
Hello Travis;
You are so right, I know I’m not the only one with stories like this, but I am the guy who can laugh about it. My new problem now is my well and pump system, which I have to use once a week to keep the pressure steady in the tank. So I dump the pressure tank, and turn on the pump every Saturday and refill it again. I never know when I’m going to need it again.
Travis,
Please share the issues, inquiring minds want to know! Which part of Samal are you on?
Ha ha, what a difference. We had running water installed in June of 09. It sure makes life easier. Up to that point, we were hand pumping and catching rain water.
Ah, the sweet sound of running water. Albeit, you still have to go to the kitchen to hear it. The bathroom is still old school. 🙂
Doug;
My wife wanted to bypass my two water tanks and hook straight to the house. I decided that with the pressure the city is sending that my pipes could not handle it.
Old school bathrooms? 1964 in boot camp San Diego, one of the recruits from rural Mississippi, asked where the toilet was, when we pointed it out he shouted, “You mean it’s in the house?”
Paul
Been out of the loop for a few days, just got back from Laconia NH bike week.
So you have metered water supply into your house. Do you run it thru your storage tank to ensure a uninterrupted source of water in your house just in case the supply line goes down.
Im curious about this stuff.
“Sundown on the Union”
Neil;
The last time I went to bike week in Laconia NH was in 1963, I had a BSA 500, One Lung, and we found out back then, that the town was dry, we phoned back and a buddy with an old panel van, trucked in the beer, what we sold paid for our trip.
Yes, I still use the tanks; if the water goes off (knock on wood) I have 2 days and my pump and well, so I’m covered. Redundancy is required here in Paradise.
Paul
I got it, its better to have 2 water sources. Is the water pressure good or do you use some kind of a pressure booster.
Oh you can appreciate this.
I just bought my most recent Harley its a 1995 FLHTP former “Milford MA” Police Bike.
The Water is pure gravity feed, which is not bad as the tank is high for the 1st floor, my upstairs bedroom has its own tank, the hot water shower units mine do have the pressure pump to give a great flow. I also have a pressure washer to clean filters, the car, and mold after the rainy season.
My first Harley was former Boston PD bike 1947 Knuckle Head with the sidecar removed. Tank shift, foot clutch and reverse, nose in between two cars and shock the kids when you back out.
Paul,
Are you able to get rid of the mold with the pressure washer using just water? Sounds like what I need, especially for my high fascia boards. Any hints on what works best, or just start spraying?
We have very low pressure (intermixed with no pressure), so I am putting in a storage tank. If I decide to put in a pressure pump as well I think I better run a pressure test on the house plumbing first. Hopefully all fitting are tight.
The first time I used the master bath shower in the new house I was in for quite a surprise. I turned on the shower and water came out the towel bar 1 meter away! For some strange reason the connection from the valve to the shower head made a jog. At the jog the mounting screw for the towel bar punctured the line. That end of the towel bar was water tight due to the little plastic insert. But the water traveled down the long towel bar and sprayed out the other end. I though, oh no, what am I in for here in this house? But, there were only one or two minor issues like that. Whew!
Rovineye;
Now with city water and its strong pressure, I can blast paint off the house if I’m not careful. Prior to that I would hook the pressure gun up to my line between the pressure tank and stowage (Ship term for storage) tank, (Works Best, After Storage Tank Is Full)
Normal, after rainy season mold, the Gun will blast it away with ease. But tough spots, I dilute bleach in a spray bottle (5pts water to 1pts bleach) hit the bad spot, wait ten, and send it to its maker.
Water from the towel bar, you can’t even make up stories like that. It is just one of those funny (to the rest of us) things that makes living here so much fun. I can’t speak for you, but they’d be picking me off the floor in a laughing fit, had that happened to me. Thanks for telling me that, you made my Monday!
We have metered water and a well. It’s good to have two sources.
Gary;
You are on the money there, two is much better.
Hi Paul,
I agree with you when you say redundancy is a requirement of living in the Philippines. It never hurts to have a back-up, especially for water or beer. No San Magoo in stock? Then have a Red Horse!
By the way, do recall off the top of your head approximately what it cost you to install the smaller water tank on the roof for the upstairs bedroom with hookup for the hot water shower? I’m thinking I’d like to do something like that as well.
Randall;
It cost at the time P 3,800.00 it should be more now, but I wouldn’t think more than P 5,000.00. (Can someone chime in here?) My big tank platform wasn’t tall enough to get water to my 2nd floor bathroom. That’s the only reason I installed it. (The benefit: Free hot water in the afternoon, from the sun.)
As for the Beer, I’ve never came close to running out of SMB. I keep a 5 case back up in case of Typhoons. I was never a Boy Scout, but they got it right with “BE PREPARED”.
Paul..is that 24 cans to a case? Is so then if 6 cans a day that is near 20 days of back up?
Dan;
It’ enough beer for a couple of visits from my buddies, they all have a hollow leg. (24 per case)
Paul,
Maybe you can re-valve your meter so that when you run your well pump you can run the meter the other way and they can PAY YOU to run it…hehehe …I’ve got to stop thinking this way before I get into trouble
Hudson;
The electricity to turn on my pump would cost more than I’d save on my water bill.
Senior,
My question to you is can you drink the city water or do you want to?
When I was was there in Olongapo if you drank the water you had a guaranteed seating at the porcelain throne. Best have some charmin!! 🙂
Hi Bruce;
I have drunk it, they are a little heavy on the chorine, but it’s not bad. I still have mineral water delivered for drinking and cooking.
Hi Paul, imho ,Php200/month is already low, we are paying Php179 for minimum monthly charge here in La Trinidad.
Hi Miles;
Then I guess I’m not going to complain, as the water bill would have to go way up before I’ll groan about it, as my June electric bill was down by P2, 500.00 by not having to pump my own water. My wife just informed me that our minimum monthly water bill is P145.00. I’m happy with that.
I guess it’s just how you look at it, maybe in a year I’ll forget the old electric bills, and question the water bill? Nah, I don’t think so!